H.G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle spring to mind, both published decades before Lovecraft and still very enjoyable by today's standards. Their prose has a certain distinctness to it but its not so far removed that a modern reader can't get into it. I have read short stories from the 1990's that read very much like Wells because the writer was trying to imitate that old Victorian style.ChiggyvonRichthofen wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2020 8:25 pm I've seen a lot of Lovecraft fans say that his prose is harder for modern readers because it's dated, a product of its time, etc., but I'm not really buying it. There are plenty of authors working before or during Lovecraft's active period who have tremendously entertaining and engaging prose. There are early 19th century writers who I find much easier to read than Lovecraft. I'd say Poe's Prose is more immediately penetrable.
I'd agree with Deledrius that it has more to do with his particular diction. It's not a product of his time, it's his own specific voice. How much of his unique style was intentional and/or actual good writing, well that's open to debate. If I remember correctly, Lovecraft himself admitted that he was uncomfortable writing action scenes, so I tend to credit his strangely detached perspective as resulting from his limitations as a writer.
But this brings me to another point about Lovecraft as a writer. His main characters tend to be ivory tower intellectuals, people who spend most of their lives in an academic environment and devoting most of their time to research. But many of Wells's protagonists also tend to be scholars, the unnamed narrator from The War of The Worlds is an astronomer, it is implied that the 'time traveler' is a university professor and Prendick from The Island of Dr. Moreau is a naturalist, albeit an amateur one.
I should also mention that with The Shadow over Innsmouth the parts i like best are when he is hearing accounts from other people, like Zadok or the ticket agent. He writes them in a style that is far less academic and less detached or distant like the rest of the story.
